Ryan Hobbs and I have talked this over to death regarding his previous car and my current DSM. Realistically a DSM is not a good choice for *budget* road racing.
Upsides:
- a TON of power (if your name is Lowell) and you can put it down
- rare (in road racing)
Downsides
- weight
- high C of G
- AWD (weight, driveline reliability, and a disadvantage in handling dynamics)
- can't tuck tires wide enough without body work (then you get a horrible scrub radius and EVEN more wheel bearing issues)
- brakes and brake cooling are not easy to sort out
- classification (Read the rule book and tell me what class you are going to run in. How do you like those Turbo Porsches? No, how about those tube frame cars? I haven't read it in a couple of years, so we could be in an easier class now but I highly doubt it. They don't take kindly to turbo AWD cars.)
Now it can be done. There is a FWD convertible time attack 2G that does very well but this guy has put serious time and effort into the car. What could be done with a FWD Honda, Miata (yeah I know), Mustang or F-body for the same dollar?
I really considered stripping my Colt and dropping my DSM drivetrain in, and doing it with that, but then you have a Mc Crap strut setup, even less ability to tuck some tires, a taller and narrower chassis. It's probably still better than the DSM, but far from ideal.
With all that negativity aside, I think it is quite possible to make a DSM competitive, but I think the real challenge will be maintainability, ease and cheapness of repair while used on track. This is where the competition really wins as there are ton a of road race parts made for Miatas, F-Bodies, and Mustangs. These parts are all basically custom items if you are going to campaign a DSM.